Obi2k16: Family
by Zorua Illusion
Summary: Question: How do you make a triangle with four points? Answer: When two points are really one and the same.


Family

How do you make a triangle with four points?

Answer: when two points are really one in the same.

Honestly Adrien doesn't have many he'd consider family anymore. Oh, don't get him wrong, he loved his father and knew his father loved him, but he was yearning for more from him. The way he acted before his mother disappeared, before grief replaced the warmth in the house with cool breezes and ticking clocks, his father feeling less like a distant memory. But Adrien couldn't push when there was nothing there to push, so he just… waited. But waiting isn't healthy, he knew, not in his situation. He needed someone to fill that void, else he'd go off the deep end.

And then came Plagg. And shortly after Plagg came Ladybug.

It took time, as all things do. Adrien was very easily irritated by the kwami before he learned more about him, and while he and Ladybug trusted each other they knew next to nothing about their partner personally. But as time went on and information was gleaned (intentionally or not), these two beings grew closer to him each and every day.

Plagg was ridiculous. He knocked things off of high areas, was impatient, demanding, and often obnoxious, not to mention a bit of a complainer and a heck of a glutton. But he did care, in his own way.

There were times when Plagg didn't say a word. Instead, the cat-like being would just settle on Adrien's shoulder right underneath his jaw. Plagg would bump his head against the bone and purr, rubbing on Adrien's neck. The window frames felt less like bars, then.

The cat-like being was also a very good listener when the occasion arose. He would listen to Adrien when everything became too much, when the ticking of the clock drowned out everything around him, when all Adrien wanted to do was curl up and sleep like he so desperately needed to but no one else acknowledged. Plagg would listen, staring at him with unblinking eyes, before going to Adrien's hair and lightly tugging on it, dragging the boy to his bed and saying that he'd wake him up if he heard anyone coming. (Adrien always slept well, those times, and always had time to make it look like he actually did something other than sleep, even if it was just history homework that Plagg had typed up some of the answers for.)

Plagg did so many more things for Adrien, including being a vent. Having to conceal close to every emotion except for peace and calm led to nothing good, so Plagg often goaded Adrien into venting at him. This usually happened when Adrien played video games so that way he'd have an excuse in case he got too loud. (The boy never did. Some things took more time than others, and Plagg had lived for millennia. He could wait.)

And when Plagg knew he wasn't enough, when his limited actions wouldn't be enough to drag Adrien out of it, he would go into the ring and Chat Noir would appear. Sometimes the two never left Adrien's room: the mental contact he had with his transformed chosen was very limited, but sometimes it was enough. Other times, though, Plagg would reach out, searching for his other half. They could sense each other to an extent, and so Plagg would know if the person his chosen needed was out and about or if he needed to send a message to Tikki.

So far, it had appeared his counter-part's luck had won out over his, as Ladybug was always out of her own accord. Chat would exit to the rooftops, and from there he'd find Ladybug.

Plagg will never admit it to anyone, but he's very grateful for Tikki's chosen. He has no idea who she is, but she can always tell when something is wrong with _his_ chosen and is usually able to get him feeling better. There will always be a disconnect between a kwami and their chosen as a result of a kwami's seeming immortality and simple species differences. But it takes one to know one, and the chosen have pretty much always gotten along like a house on fire. (Plagg doesn't get these human sayings most the time, but he'll admit they're pretty funny sometimes.)

So Plagg drifts off into the semi-dream state he enters when Adrien is Chat Noir but doesn't need the kwami's knowledge. (It's a process, these transformations. The more their chosen get used to their abilities and powers, the more he and Tikki draw back until they only 'awaken' in the direst of circumstances. It's a way of keeping them safe, but also letting them know that there was a reason they were chosen to be the holders of their Miraculous.)

Ladybug, to Chat, wasn't just his best friend. He knew he loved her, yes, but that wasn't it either. She was warm and comforting, like a patch of sun on a plush carpet floor. So as a cat, of course he was attracted to that warmth. She comforted him when he needed it, when both he and Plagg knew the kwami wouldn't be enough to snap him out of this funk and so the kwami leapt into the ring without the words (the words had some amount of power, yes, but it was the intent that was the most important part) and then bounded across rooftops until he ran into his Lady.

Ladybug didn't know what, specifically, made her kitty more reckless than usual. Any feline grace had had completely disappeared whenever he was like this, only the barest traces remaining so that way he could navigate. (Tikki had told her once that that was his kwami guiding his movements. They tended not to do it very often, usually only when their chosen are first starting out as a protection method, letting them learn the abilities and limits of their powers. But, Tikki had shrugged, their chosen were humans. She didn't seem to know how to continue so she just… didn't.)

Ladybug usually hugged him, then. Not the quick, desperate, relieved thing after Animan, but one born of a need to share warmth and comfort. She would hug him and pet his hair, the two sitting so as to not attract attention and raise unnecessary alarm (or call unwelcome press agents).

Chat would sit there, trembling in her grasp more often than not, not able to will his limbs to move. Sometimes he'd grasp her back, arms tightening around her enough that she could sense his desperation for physical contact but never tight enough to cause pain. Sometimes, rarest of all, he would cry, tears slipping over the mask adhered to his face.

Most times, after a few minutes, he'd try to brush it off, saying that "I needed that, thanks," before trying to run off. She never let him, grabbing the tail-like appendage of his suit and gripping him into a hug again. If he made a pun, she would let him go, but not without reminding him that she'd always be there. If not (or he tried and failed horrifically), she'd keep him there. She could sense he was lonely – he often patrolled by himself, and where would he find the time to do so if he had other occupations like Marinette did? – and so did her best to be there for him, knowing it was a heavy burden.

This usually ended in them talking, telling each other some details of themselves without giving away their identities (favorite colors, movies, foods, sights, and maybe the reasons why, sometimes). Chat always seemed a little brighter, a little lighter after these conversations, and this time when he tried to leave she let him. He was her partner, and if he needed a pick-me-up, she was more than happy to give him one.

And every single time, when Chat Noir stumbled through his window and Adrien fell onto his bed, he fell asleep and rested easy, knowing that he had found a family in these two figures.

(Later, the family triangle would begin to look more like a tree as Adrien's friends became closer to him, and by extension their families did as well. Soon, Adrien's family was a whole lot larger than it ever had been.

The loneliness wasn't so crushing anymore.)


End file.
